Healer of a Broken Heart

"Aw! It's a puppy!" I shouted as I saw this little brown and white chihuahua in the window of a pet store in it's litter of six. "It's so cute!"

Tre bent down and looked at the dog with a scrunched up face, fists on his hips, and one eyebrow raised. The dog jumped up in the window and licked relative to where his face was.

"Come on, let's go look at them," I said grabbing his wrist and dragging him inside the store.

I ran up to the crib the dogs were in and I looked down at them adoring them.

"Not a chihuahua, Jayden, you know I hate little ankle biters."

"But I like them, they're so cute!"

He groaned and walked off to look at the parakeets. I picked up one of the dogs and it licked my face. I pet it a while before setting it back down to look at the other dogs around the store. They had little Pugs, Boxers, Bull Mastiffs, Shih-tzus, Yorkie, Labs, and some mixed breeds against the back wall. I looked around at them and wanted to pick a dog and talk Tre into getting it for me.

I continued to browse and found a little brown dog in the mixed breeds section. It had a black nose and purple spotted pink tongue. He had black lines running off the corners of his eyes giving him an Egyptian look. He was super furry and looked like a Chow Chow. When I approached his crate, he looked up at me and began to pant and wag his tale frantically. I opened the crate and took him out to hold him. He started licking my face and attacked my nose with his tongue. I went to find Tre to bribe him into letting me take him home.

I held the puppy close and peered around the corner and found him looking at the Betta Fighting Fish. I ran up to him and said, "Tre! Look!" and stuck the dog out in his face.

It began to squirm to get to him to lick his face. I put it in Tre's arms and he licked his face all over until he held him away from him face.

"And I suppose you want this?"

I nodded with a cheeky smile.

"If it pisses on my carpet it's gone."

I jumped up and down, clapping my hands, and gave him a big hug nearly suffocating the dog. We went up to the desk and paid for the puppy and went back to Bev's for the night. We went inside and I took him to the fenced in back yard to let him sniff around for a while and explore a bit. Tre walked outside and joined me in watching the dog mark it's territory and bite at bugs flying about. He wrapped his arms around my waist and laid his head on my shoulder.

"Thank you, Tre, for the puppy."

"Mhm. and what do I get out of this?" he chuckled.

I turned my head and gave him a soft peck on the lips. "That good enough?" I smiled.

"Mmmm, I was thinking..." he paused.

I raised my brow and chuckled, "I don't think so."

"Aw, I bought you a puppy, the least you could do is-"

"No, Tre." I smiled and he groaned.

The rest of the evening we played with the puppy and I watched it tug at Tre's shirt every chance it got, nearly biting a hole in it. Later as the day went on, we were sitting by the pool watching the puppy play with leaves. We were sitting in a lawn chair and I was in his lap.

"We need to name him," I said.

He looked at me and then up at the sky. He pondered for a moment before stating, "Abbey."

I gave him a blank look and said, "It's a boy."

"Oh."

We thought for a while and said random names that come to our minds like Riley, Buster, Fido, the usual stuff like that. About five or so minutes had passed until I said, "Brutus!"

Tre nodded, "That sounds good. He'll be a big dog, so that will fit him well."

I smiled big and laid my head on his shoulder.

"Well, thanks for letting us stay with you, Aunt Bev," Tre said as I was packing my bags down the steps to the door.

"Oh, my pleasure, Frank. You should come by more often."

"Well, I would, but working around the touring is a little tough, you know?"

"Yes, I understand. And it was a pleasure meeting you, Jayden."

"It was a pleasure meeting you too, Mrs. Beverly," I said with a cheeky little smile.

We loaded the bags in the car and I took Brutus out to do his business one more time before we left, said our goodbyes, and left back to California.